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Local Droplet Etching: Self-assembled Nanoholes for Quantum Dots and Nanopillars

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Nanodroplets

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology ((LNNST,volume 18))

Abstract

We review the mechanism and recent applications of the self-organized patterning of semiconductor surfaces by local droplet etching (LDE). LDE is a nanofabrication technique that is applicable in situ during molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and fully compatible with state-of-the-art MBE systems. Most importantly, as a local etching technique that works with a number of different materials, it adds a new degree of freedom to established self-assembling techniques. During LDE, metallic droplets drill nanoholes into a semiconductor surface with structural parameters adjustable over a wide range by the process conditions. In subsequent overgrowth steps the holes are filled for the formation of nanostructures like, e.g., quantum dots (QDs)Quantum dots or quantum pillars. In comparison to other QD systems, the LDE dots have the key advantages that they are strain-free, highly uniform, and that their size is precisely adjustable. In addition, vertically stacked quantum dot molecules have been realized. Crystalline nanopillars are created by a combination of in situ LDE with ex situ selective etching that are highly attractive for studies of ballistic phonon and electron transport, e.g., in the field of thermoelectrics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Andrea Stemmann and Jochen Kerbst for MBE growth and AFM characterizations, Andreas Graf, Achim Küster, Christian Strelow, and Tim Köppen for PL measurements, and Thorben Bartsch for measurements of the thermal conductance. Furthermore, we thank Stefano Sanguinetti, Takaaki Mano, Nobuyuki Koguchi, and Richard Warburton for very helpful and stimulating discussions. Finally, we thank the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” for financial support via HA 2042/6-1, GrK 1286, and SSP 1386.

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  1. Institute of Applied Physics, University of Hamburg, Jungiusstr. 11, 20355, Hamburg, Germany

    Christian Heyn, David Sonnenberg & Wolfgang Hansen

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  1. Christian Heyn
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  2. David Sonnenberg
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  3. Wolfgang Hansen
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Correspondence to Christian Heyn .

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Electronic, University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

    Zhiming M. Wang

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Heyn, C., Sonnenberg, D., Hansen, W. (2013). Local Droplet Etching: Self-assembled Nanoholes for Quantum Dots and Nanopillars. In: Wang, Z. (eds) Nanodroplets. Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology, vol 18. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9472-0_15

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